Florida’s attorney general is suing the popular Snapchat social media platform, alleging that the company has refused to follow a new state law requiring social media firms to obtain parental consent before providing accounts to 14- to 15-year-olds.
James Uthmeier’s office filed the lawsuit on April 22 in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Rosa County. It argues the reason Florida lawmakers passed House Bill 3 last year was that parents, educators and others view the obsessive use of social media platforms by youths as a threat to their mental health.
HB 3, which prohibits social media companies from providing accounts to those 13 and under, has also faced a federal court challenge by tech companies, although a federal judge recently rejected the companies’ request for an injunction to stop enforcement of the new law.
“Snapchat … has acknowledged in other litigation that it is subject to HB 3, yet it is openly defying this important public health measure,” the lawsuit states. “Snap’s conduct is particularly egregious because it continues to market Snapchat in Florida as safe for users as young as 13 even though it knows that Snapchat can be easily used to access pornography and buy drugs, among many other dangers.”
But a Snap Co. spokesperson told the Florida Record in an email that HB 3 violates the First Amendment rights of Florida adults and minors. In addition, its age-verification requirements would pose risks to consumers’ privacy rights and could lead to personal data breaches.
“We believe there are more privacy-conscious solutions to online safety and managing age verification, including at the operating system, app store or device level,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, there is a current challenge to the constitutionality of this law pending in Florida federal court, and we hoped that the state would allow this challenge to proceed through the proper legal process.”
Snap Co. also accuses Florida officials of trying to bypass the issues raised by the federal litigation through Uthmeier’s lawsuit in state court. At the same time, the company supports efforts by congressional lawmakers to come up with an age-verification system done at the app-store level.
Ulthmeier’s lawsuit seeks to require Snap Co. to comply not just with HB 3 but with the provisions of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, which bars the types of practices Snapchat has allegedly used to build its Florida user base.
“Snap is deceiving Florida parents about the dangers children face on the app, from behavioral addictive features to allowing sexual predators and drug dealers access, and we cannot allow this deception to continue,” Uthmeier said in a prepared statement.
Snapchat uses addictive features identified in HB 3, according to the Attorney General’s Office. These features are infinite scrolling, push notifications, interactive metrics on user reactions to personal posts and auto-play videos.
The company actively misinforms Florida parents about the harm the platform can potentially pose to minors, the Attorney General’s Office says. These harms include content that contains references to profanity, alcohol, tobacco and drug use, sexuality and nudity, and mature themes.
The lawsuit seeks a court declaration saying that Snapchat has violated HB 3 and the trade practices law as well as civil penalties and attorney fees provided in HB 3, punitive damages and court costs.